Jerome...

This weekend.

What a rush...as in rush from here to there, and have a ton of fun!

Gracious...

It may take me a couple of days to recover...

My week was a bit, well...odd at points during one 48 hour period at the end there (I only wanted to say 24 hours, because I so badly wanted it to only have been odd for 24 hours, but it extended people...it extended. I may elaborate if I can make it into a good enough story that doesn't make me cry with the retelling. It is actually getting better the father I get from it.) The highlights:

• A cook out with Bert and Janie
• Another Fresh Strawberry Pie
• A whole slew of designer jeans came into the shop
• A trip to Jerome

Ohhhh...did you say a trip to Jerome?!?!

I did.

I love Jerome...it is a ghost town you know. And, it's quite close to home actually...and as youngsters, before it became more of a bustling Art's town, we used to run up for the day, and um...well, let ourselves into the closed up building to see what was inside. Now a lot of the buildings and homes are being restored...

Jerome is an old copper mining town built on the side of a mountain...where most of it just hangs off there into space. It's charming and fun...and steep. We walked and browsed in the fun shops before we headed up to the Haunted Hamburger for lunch. The are on one of the top streets, and have a great view! And, Janie and I agreed that it was a good thing we didn't see the 6 layer carrot cake and even taller chocolate cake until we were leaving...as that is the only thing we may have eaten.



























We made a quick trip to the Holy Family Church, for a view of the wonderful Catholic Religious Art they have inside (I remember it being more pink at one point, but it was still fabu) As you can see, even if it was still quite hazy (what is it with all this crazy haze??) the views from the hill of The Verde Valley and Sedona are just amazing. Rich and I had to leave earlier than Bert and Janie so Rich could go to work, and we missed a little live jazz at the Spirit Room...but responsibility called (for both of us, as I actually had to duck into Snap Snap as well)

Our last stop before returning home was to The Asylumn...the old TB hospital in Jerome. It's now houses a The Jerome Grand Hotel and swanky restaurant. It apparently was the scene of some pretty "weird" incidents involving caretakers and the elevators...and the elevators falling on the caretakers and killing them. This apparently happened more than once, and now the hotel claims to be haunted. It is a weird place, and while I've actually stayed in Jerome at a bed and breakfast (the only weird thing we had happen was to find a rather large and rather alive tarantula on the wall of our room, which we needed to take outside) Rich and I both agreed that this hotel definitely feels spooky, and neither of us would stay there in the near future.

Even as a younger version of myself, this place was definitely weird and freaky...It IS beautiful though. I believe they now host some kind of weird haunted night during the year...

Yipes.

I like to actually feel comfortable enough to sleep when I spend that kind of $$ to stay at a hotel (well, depending on who I'm with I suppose...wink wink. Ok, that was bad.) At any rate, I would rather not stay in a place that gives me the creeps during the day, much less at night)

All this was such a lovely way to start off the weekend...But, I have to confess, after the weirdness of the week, and the running to and fro, and showing off our corner of Arizona, I was so beat, I had to opt out of running over to Matt and Megan's for a Saturday night cap (but, I was sort of there...I mean, Megan displays some of her jewelry and art at an Art Co-Op in Jerome) I wanted to go so very badly...I really needed it, unfortunately the only move I made on Saturday night off my chair was to either refill my hot tea, or to flop in bed.

Which was good...because we were off to an incredible hike in The Promised Land on Sunday...

I just love a weekend that can't quite be covered in one blog post...